New to CPAP, discouraged already. Help.

I too like to sleep in a very cool room, and was having humidity / condensation problems. I bought one variation of a hose cover, and I tuck the hose under the sheets with me. Because I was still having a dry nose, I asked for a heated tube which I then put inside the hose cover. I keep the temp at 80 deg, and for over a week have not had a dry nose nor water in my hose / mask. I was also having problems with the nasal pillow type mask (Swift Fx) and moved to the Circadiance SleepWeaver and it seems to work very well for me. Yes, my room is still in the mid to low 60's.

Well the lanolin ointment really helped out with my nose last night. I didn't feel any soreness while wearing the mask and I didn't have any extra soreness this morning. I was able to wear the pillows for almost 7 hours last night. I did wake up several times last night and noticed that there was quite a bit of water in my mask and on my face underneath. I also had water dripping from where the small hose of the mask meets the big hose?? so now I'm thinking its not just condensation from my breath. I still can't imagine water getting through when the hose is hanging over the headboard. What I think is happening is it has to be cooling somewhere on its way down to the mask. If that makes sense. I need to work on a fixing up a hose cover temporarily because dont want to spend money on one if my s9 is coming with a heated hose. I think if I didn't have the water on my face this mask would be perfect. Although I still need my machine to make sure it's not leaking and I'm getting the pressure I need. Even wearing it for 7 hours I still woke up tired..frustrating.

Make sure when you are getting your new machine that you don't get another Escape..avoid any S9 with Escape in the model name.
You might want to read this
http://maskarrayed.wordpress.com/

If you don't have any data and still feel like no improvement after all the newbie issues are sorted out....there is no way to evaluate your actual therapy to see what the problem might be. So make sure that anything you get offers full data and has easy to obtain and use software. Have you decided on the ResMed S9? If so get either the Elite (straight cpap) or the AutoSet which offers both straight cpap mode and apap mode. Personally, I would get the Autoset. While you may not need or want apap mode it's nice to have it available. Sometimes it comes in handy. The price difference is not that much. The Autoset is like having 2 machines in one.

Fix yourself some sort of homemade hose cozy. Try to keep whatever you use as light weight as possible. The added weight can sort of drag on the mask. I did that once when I tried some towels as a hose cozy. Didn't work out so great.
Lightweight fleece works great. Old socks will work too.

buksbeek,

I use the Piliaro a lot & one trick I have is when using the Piliaro, I have to turn the humidifier down lower than for other masks. Its a balancing act. You might want to put the hose close to your body for sleep, sounds weird, but it works for me.

Hang in there,
Jen

bucksbeek wrote: I did wake up several times last night and noticed that there was quite a bit of water in my mask and on my face underneath. I also had water dripping from where the small hose of the mask meets the big hose?? so now I'm thinking its not just condensation from my breath. I still can't imagine water getting through when the hose is hanging over the headboard.

I had a similar problem while visiting my son's home over the holidays. He keeps his house around 67 degrees. I have a hose cozy and had my humidifier set at 5, and the hose draped over the headboard like you do. For the first time, I was waking up, not to a couple of drops here and there like at home, but a really wet nose. I ended up having to reset the humidity down to 3, and he upped the thermostat a couple of degrees and that did the trick.

My machine came with just a regular slimline hose and I'm planning to get a Climateline, although I've found warming up my machine in advance (when I remember) makes me more comfortable as well.

As for the fatigue, give it some time. I'm still feeling not great, but not horrible as I was and I never wake up feeling worse after sleep than before like I used to. My really dragged out days are fewer and farther between. It took probably at least a month before I felt much difference. Keep on keeping on.

.

I will most likely be ordering my ResMed S9 Autoset early next week. I found a gently used one for a reasonable price I think. It's from a reputable company. Hopefully that will help. When I turned my humidity down to 2 it was too dry but on 3 its too much moisture. So I just think either getting the heated hose or conjuring up that hose cover will have to be my best bet for now.

If those machines collect data, look at the data to see what might be going on. If not then get one that collects data that you can look at and learn to read for yourself. Flow waveform data is good to look at because you can see every breath you took or didn't take. See where you apneas are occurring and look at you breathing waveform data/flow wave form and see what type of patterns are going on. Otherwise your just guessing at what your problems might be.

Incredibly frustrated this morning. I fashioned my hose cover with a fleece blanket and rubber bands. Woke up at 4 am face soaking wet!! I just can not sleep with water on my face..I'm sorry. Took the mask off out of frustration, woke up at 8 with a killer headache (obviously from lack of oxygen). I really need to figure this rainout situation out. I already have turned down humidity, and hung the hose higher than the machine. Now I even have covered the hose and I still have water. My mask was full and my tube has water in it also. What the heck is going on..? I can not turn up the heat in our bedroom without turning up the heat for the whole house, and it already feels like its too warm in there. The one thing I can try is to turn the fan down or off. We sleep with a fan for some white noise..I didn't think that would make much of a difference though. Really annoyed..trying to stay positive.

cosmo wrote:

renatae wrote:
I had a similar problem while visiting my son's home over the holidays. He keeps his house around 67 degrees.

I wouldn't have stayed at that icebox

I stayed at my brother's house one time during the winter. They are acclimated to living with cooler temps. I couldn't stand it and went down and turned on the central heat. Someone had turned it back off as I was sleeping. I woke up at one point really cold and shivering. I just packed up my things and left without saying a word

Different strokes for different folks. When I read the post that the house was 67 and bumped up a couple of degrees, my thought was, "Wow, how do they sleep when its soooo hot?" My preference is low 60s for sleeping.

bucksbeek wrote:I already have turned down humidity, and hung the hose higher than the machine. Now I even have covered the hose and I still have water. My mask was full and my tube has water in it also. What the heck is going on

Your own exhaled breath contains water...it is condensing the the nasal pillow and running right back down to your face.
I had it last night myself. I was experimenting with a new mask. And this was with the S9 heated hose set to 83 degrees and a hose cozy. I had nothing to protect or insulate this particular nasal pillow mask. And yes, it is highly annoying.

I will say this one last time....a person can get rain out in the nasal pillows even if they don't use a humidifier at all.
Its physics....moisture in breath gets cooled down in the nasal pillow and water is released.
I bet you could turn the humidifier off and still get a cold spray.

Yes, I hear you and I understand that is part of it. But why is it that I have water all through out my tubing? If I have it hung over my headboard its going up hill both ways, no matter where the water is coming from. This is the part that is mystifying me.

Are you over filling the humidifier tank? If you are the air blowing over the water will push the water into the hose.
I have done that twice.
Try just filling the tank to 3/4 full.
Also make sure that you remove the hose and drain out any excess water in it from last night.

Otherwise if the tank isn't too full and you are still getting copious amounts of water in the hose itself then that is from bedroom temp and humidity setting and lowering the machine only allows for that water to hopefully drain back towards the machine.
The wet stuff on your face is a separate problem.
Now if your tank is over full and the machine is not much lower than your mattress...it is possible for the machine to force the water all the way to your face. Been there done that.
Think of it as a white cap on the lake on a windy day.

I am not overfilling the water tank. When they gave me the machine they marked a line (in Pen) on the tank which was well under the max fill line as to where I should fill the tank. It's at about 3/4 full. However, I did notice that I'm going through a lot of water. I called my cpap clinician yesterday and he had me come in to check the hose/mask for any leaks. He noticed that the heating element gets extremely hot, even at a setting of three. He said this could cause excess condensation. His other idea was that maybe my mouth was coming open during the night obviously causing air to leak and so it was drawing more water?? But my mouth is not dry in the morning and I don't feel bloated like I was swallowing air or anything. I don't think that is the issue. He wants me to switch between the pilairo and the full face mask for the rest of the week, to see if I'm still getting rainout in the full face mask. He did have me turn humidifier down to 2.5 but I had such bad insomnia last night that I never got to wear the mask long enough to see if actually worked. I also had the hose covered again and I covered up the small tube on the mask. I think I'm using too heavy a sock for the small tube though because it made my mask feel like a brick rather than a pillow. Amazing what a little material will do. I'm feeling like I should just wait for my S9 Autoset to see if it might help work out some of these issues.